The swim in more detail - part 1

Sat 17 July 2010 - Travelled down to Dover and did a 3 hour swim in the harbour. I had booked a static caravan at Varne Ridge Holiday Park for the period of my tide and so in the afternoon we went to Capel-le-Ferne, just outside of Dover, and checked in. What can I say - Varne Ridge is a fantastic place to stay, especially if you are a Channel Swimming Hopeful. Evelyn and David are fantastic hosts; very warm and hospitable and they cater for Channel Swimmers. If you are successful they fly the flag of your country from the mast in the front garden and all successful swimmers get a plaque commemorating their swim on the wall of the Holiday Park. I could not have found a better place to spend my tide and would recommend it to anyone contemplating a swim in the future, or if you would just like a nice quiet place to spend a few days in Kent.

Sun 18 July 2010 - Today I did a 2 hour swim in the harbour and got a few last words of advice from Freda and the other volunteers on the beach. Swim from feed to feed and put one arm in front of the other. Very wise words.

Mon 19 July 2010 - on the Channel Swim google groups their has been a lot of activity - it seems almost every pilot has taken a swimmer out today. Initially, I was a bit worried as Suva, the boat I was booked with, appeared to still be in port. However it turned out that there was a problem with Suva's tracking device and when I called Neil, the captain, around 9ish he was in the channel with all the other pilots. This was great news for me as I was the second swimmer on this tide and now that the first swimmer was swimming - this meant I was up next. Neil asked if I wanted to go tomorrow and I said that I did. He told me he would call me later to arrange times. I gave Don and Rob, my crew, a quick call to provisionally warn them that we could be going tomorrow and then waited for the call from Neil.

Neil called back later that afternoon to confirm if I still wanted to go tomorrow. I definitely wanted to go tomorrow and so he told me to be at the marina at 4am. A quick call to Rob and Don and they were all set to head down to Dover, from London, for a 4am start.